Vic Gundotra at the Google I/O developer conference last year in San Francisco. Gundotra just announced he is leaving Google.
James Martin/CNET

Vic Gundotra, head of Google's social network Google+, announced in a Google+ post Thursday that he is leaving the company effective immediately.

His departure follows a rumor posted two days ago on the app Secret that, "Vic Gundotra is interviewing." A person familiar with the matter said that Gundotra had problems with Google's management team.

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"I really enjoy using Google+ on a daily basis, especially the auto awesome movies which I really love sharing with my family and friends," said Page.

In addition to spearheading the development of Google+, Page congratulated Gundotra for his work on guiding the teams that introduced turn-by-turn navigation to Google Maps, and improving Google's developer relations, which Page described as "disparate efforts" before Gundotra fixed them.

Gundotra came to Google in 2007, following a 16-year stint at Microsoft as a general manager and a year off working on charitable causes.

Gundotra has not revealed where he will be going, although his abrupt departure indicates that he could be going to a competitor. The future of the social network that Gundotra founded is almost as unclear as Gundotra's next move.

Going forward, Google+ will not be led by Gundotra's right-hand man and the social network's product manager Bradley Horowitz, reported Recode. Instead, Google confirmed that Google+ Vice President of Engineering David Besbris will take command of Google+.

"Today's news has no impact on our Google+ strategy -- we have an incredibly talented team that will continue to build great user experiences across Google+, Hangouts and Photos," a Google representative said.

About the author

Senior writer Seth Rosenblatt covered Google and security for CNET News, with occasional forays into tech and pop culture. Formerly a CNET Reviews senior editor for software, he has written about nearly every category of software and app available.
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